Ducati Motorcycles

About ducati

Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. is an Italian company that designs and manufactures motorcycles. Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, Ducati is owned by Audi through its Italian subsidiary Lamborghini.

In 1926 Antonio Cavalieri Ducati and his three sons, Adriano, Marcello, and Bruno Cavalieri Ducati; founded Societa Scientifica Radio Brevetti Ducati in Bologna to produce vacuum tubes, condensers and other radio components.

At the small Turinese firm SIATA (Societa Italiana per Applicazioni Tecniche Auto-Aviatorie), Aldo Farinelli began developing a small pushrod engine for mounting on bicycles. Barely a month after the official liberation of Italy in 1944, SIATA announced its intention to sell this engine, called the "Cucciolo" (Italian for "puppy"). The first Cucciolos were available alone, to be mounted on standard bicycles, by the buyer; however, businessmen soon bought the little engines in quantity, and offered complete motorized-bicycle units for sale.

So in 1950, in collaboration with SIATA, the Ducati firm finally offered its own Cucciolo-based motorcycle. This first Ducati motorcycle was a 48 cc bike weighing 98 lb (44 kg) with a top speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) had a 15 mm carburetor giving just under 200 mpg-US (1.2 L/100 km; 240 mpg-imp). Ducati soon dropped the Cucciolo name in favor of "55M" and "65TL". The chief designer of most Ducati motorcycles in the 1950s was Fabio Taglioni

In 1952 Ducati introduced 65TS cycle and Cruiser (a four-stroke motor scooter).

In 1953, management split the company into two separate entities, Ducati Meccanica SpA and Ducati Elettronica, in acknowledgment of its diverging motorcycle and electronics product lines.

In the 1960s, Ducati earned its place in motorcycling history by producing the fastest 250 cc road bike then available, the Mach 1.

In the 1970s Ducati began producing large-displacement V-twin motorcycles and in 1973, released a V-twin with the trademarked desmodromic valve design.

In 1973, Ducati commemorated its 1972 win at the Imola 200 with the production model green frame Ducati 750 SuperSport.

In 1993 Monster model appeared, a bike with exposed trellis and engine. It makes about half of all sales.

Ducati is best known for high performance motorcycles characterized by large capacity four-stroke, 90° V-twin engines, featuring a desmodromic valve design. Ducati refers to this configuration as L-twin because one cylinder is vertical while the other is horizontal, making it look like a letter "L". Modern Ducatis remain among the dominant performance motorcycles available today partly because of the desmodromic valve design, which is nearing its 50th year of use.

While most other manufacturers utilize wet clutches (with the spinning parts bathed in oil) Ducati previously used multiplate dry clutches in many of their motorcycles. The dry clutch eliminates the power loss from oil viscosity drag on the engine even though the engagement may not be as smooth as the oil bath versions but the clutch plates can wear more rapidly. Ducati has converted to wet clutches across their current product lines.

Ducati also extensively uses the Trellis Steel Frame configuration, although Ducati's MotoGP project broke with this tradition by introducing a revolutionary carbon fibre frame for the Ducati Desmosedici GP9.

Moto blog

2014 WSBK – Misano Results

Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes won both races at Misano to stretch his championship lead to 39 points as we pass the halfway mark of the 2014 World Superbike Championship. The reigning champion scored his third double-win round of the season while his teammate Loris Baz added a pair of second-place finishes. David Salom on the Kawasaki’s factory EVO entry was also the top rider in the new sub-class for both races to top off a strong weekend for the Team Green.

Ducati Holding Private Viewings of New Scrambler at World Ducati Week

Ducati announced it will offer private preview viewings of its new Scrambler prototype at World Ducati Week, July 18-20. Visitors to the annual Ducatisti festival at Italy’s Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli will get an early look at the Scrambler. Not counting the spy photos that have leaked out, the Scrambler has only been seen in person by Ducati employees who were recently given a sneak peak.

2014 Hesketh 24 Officially Launched

British brand Hesketh has officially launched its limited edition tribute to its Formula 1 roots and the start of a new generation of motorcycles. The Hesketh 24 was originally supposed to be ready in February but after encountering some delays, the 1950cc V-Twin is ready to go. Hesketh is only producing 24 units, but the company says it has plans for a two-seat sport-touring model based on the same platform.

2015 EBR 1190SX Revealed

Erik Buell Racing launches its next salvo to the sportbike market with the 1190SX streetfighter. The 1190SX borrows heavily from EBR’s 1190RX superbike contender that MO’s Troy Siahaan is scheduled to test today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Although no specs have been released, the SX appears to use most of the RX’s hardware: 1190cc V-Twin engine; aluminum fuel-carrying frame; massive 386mm single-disc front brake.

2015 Ducati Scrambler Spied + Video

Just days after Ducati officially confirmed it will introduce its new Scrambler this fall comes a spy video of the new bike undergoing some regulatory testing at Ducati’s Bologna factory. Filmed by spy image agency BMH Images, the video provides a fairly good glimpse of the Scrambler, albeit with all sorts of testing equipment and at times a large aluminum shroud (listen to it scrape the ground at the 16 and 43-second marks). Get the Flash Player to see this player.

2014 WSBK – Sepang Results

The first ever World Superbike round in Malaysia offered a plenty of drama including both factory Kawasaki riders crashing out on the first lap, a red flagged second race and an overall impressive outing by Aprilia. Under pressure for his lack of results so far this season, Marco Melandri impressed, earning the double for his first career wins on the RSV4 Factory. Aprilia riders led every lap in both races at Sepang, including the red-flagged initial start for Race 2, with Sylvain Guintoli joining his teammate on the podium with a pair of second-place finishes.

Ducati Teases New 2015 Scrambler

Ducati officially confirmed it is launching a new Scrambler model for 2015. Ducati gave its factory workers in Bologna a sneak peak of the new Scrambler prototype, but the rest of us will have to settle for the teaser image above and a video. We’ve been waiting for Ducati to reveal its new Scrambler ever since the company registered for the trademark in April 2013.

Ducati Spotted In Madagascar! + Video

As a motorcycle manufacturer, you know you’ve made it big when animated animals want to ride your products. Such is the case with Ducati and its cameo appearance in the movie Madagascar 3. Admittedly, I have yet to see the third installment of the hugely popular movie series in which the gang of zoo animals gets stuck on an island, but I suppose the cameo will appeal to those moto-parents who were dragged to the theater by their kids.

2015 Ducati Monster 821 Revealed

Just over six months after Ducati revealed its Monster 1200 at EICMA, the Italian manufacturer announced another new liquid-cooled member to its naked roadster line. Sharing the same 90° V-Twin engine as the Hyperstrada and Hypermotard, the new Monster 821 shares many design cues with its 1198cc sibling. The 821cc Testastretta 11° engine, claiming 112 hp and 65.9 ft-lb., is housed in a steel trellis frame similar to that on the Monster 1200.

2014 AMA Flat Track: Springfield Mile I Results

Bryan Smith edged out Kenny Coolbeth Jr. by a mere 0.041 seconds to win the AMA Pro Flat Track Experts Twins race at the Springfield Mile. The ten laps of the race saw Smith and his Kawasaki battling for the lead with Coolbeth and Jake Johnson and Jared Mees sitting close behind waiting for an opening.